Review | Black Star Pastry's Watermelon Cake vs The Cronut

Black Star's Watermelon cake and a cronout. These were certainly on most Sydney foodie's food bucket lists this year, they definately were on mine. Luckily I was able to tick both them off my list in one afternoon in Newtown. So did the desserts live up to their hype? And which of the "it" desserts were better?

Let's start with the Watermelon cake from Black Star. This was my first visit to Black Star in Newtown (or any Black Star) and I was surpised at how small and easy to miss it was, given its immense popularity. The staff there were super friendly and happy to provide advice on what to order, although I came in knowing what I wanted. The watermelon cake, of instagram and blogger fame.I was suprised to see that part of the cake actually contained a slice of fresh watermelon, when I had seen pictures of it I had assumed it was a gelantine based layer. The cake layers were soft and spongey and the cream was light and not too sweet, and flavoured genty with rose. The cake is pretty, as you can see, and was tasty. A nice summertime treat. However, would it be worth making a special trip down for and queing up for (which I hear is common on the weekends)? Probably not.

After Black Star, we were walking through Newtown when we passed Gelato Blue and something in the display caught my eye. Was that? Is that? Yes! Finally! Its a cronut! For those who don't know, a cronut is a mix between a croissant and a donut and is not commonly made so I was so excited to have stumbled upon that I had to buy it, despite being full of cake. I selected the nutella cronut (it was Halloween eve, hence the marshmallow pumpkin on top) and hoped it would survive the hot car ride home. The drive home was enough to build my appetite and I dug into my cronut (which had thankfully survived) straight away. And oh my the deliciousness! Delicate, sweet pastry layers teamed perfectly with the chocolate. So good! I wished I had bought more.

So if the cronut and the watermelon cake were in a taste battle, the cronut would be the victor. It was even cheaper than the cake ($6 vs $7.50). But all in all, it was a pretty good day for my sweet tooth.